W. S. Churchill '' On A United Europe'' [ 1947]

UNITED EUROPE MEETING

A SPEECH AT THE ALBERT HALL

14 MAY 1947

11 May—The Conservative Party Central Office issue the “Industrial
Charter”.

12 May—The Royal Family land in England on return from their visit
to the Union of South Africa.

14 May—A further £50,000,000 of the American Loan is drawn by
Britain. Total withdrawals now amount to £437,500,000.

14 May—The United Europe Committee holds a public meeting at the
Albert Hall, London.

[14 May 1947

All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single
word: Freedom; Justice; Honour; Duty; Mercy; Hope. We who have
come together here to-night, representing almost all the political parties
in our British national life and nearly all the creeds and churches of the
Western world—this large audience filling a famous hall— we also can
express our purpose in a single word—“Europe”. At school we learned
from the maps hung on the walls, and the advice of our teachers that
there is a continent called Europe. I remember quite well being taught
this as a child, and after living a long time, I still believe it is true.
However, professional geographers now tell us that the Continent of
Europe is really only the peninsula of the Asiatic land mass. I must tell
you in all faith that I feel that this would be an arid and uninspiring
conclusion, and for myself, I distinctly prefer what I was taught when 1
was a boy.

It has been finely said by a young English writer, Mr. Sewell, that the
real demarcation between Europe and Asia is no chain of mountains, no
natural frontier, but a system of beliefs and ideas which we call Western
Civilisation. “In the rich pattern of this culture”, says Mr. Sewell, “there

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are many strands; the Hebrew belief in God; the Christian message of
compassion and redemption; the Greek love of truth, beauty and
goodness; the Roman genius for law. Europe is a spiritual conception.
But if men cease to ho d that conception in their minds, cease to feel its
worth in their hearts, it will die.”

These are not my words, but they are my faith; and we are here to
proclaim our resolve that the spiritual conception of Europe shall not die.
We declare, on the contrary, that it shall live and shine, and cast a
redeeming illumination upon a world of confusion and woe. That is what
has brought us all together here this evening, and that is what is going to
keep us all together—however sharply or even deeply we may be divided
—until our goal is reached and our hopes are realised.

In our task of reviving the glories and happiness of Europe, and her
prosperity, it can certainly be said that we start at the bottom of her
fortunes. Here is the fairest, most temperate, most fertile area of the
globe. The influence and the power of Europe and of Christendom have
for centuries shaped and dominated the course of history. The sons and
daughters of Europe have gone forth and carried their message to every
part of the world. Religion, law, learning, art, science, industry,
throughout the world all bear, in so many lands, under every sky and in
every clime, the stamp of European origin, or the trace of European
influence.

But what is Europe now? It is a rubble-heap, a charnel-house, a
breeding-ground of pestilence and hate. Ancient nationalistic feuds and
modern ideological factions distract and infuriate the unhappy, hungry
populations. Evil teachers urge the paying-off old scores with
mathematical precision, and false guides point to unsparing retribution as
the pathway to prosperity. Is there then to be no respite? Has Europe’s
mission come to an end? Has she nothing to give to the world but the
contagion of the Black Death? Are her peoples to go on harrying and
tormenting one another by war and vengeance until all that invests
human life with dignity and comfort has been obliterated? Are the States
of Europe to continue for ever to squander the first fruits of their toil
upon the erection of new barriers, military fortifications and tariff walls
and passport networks against one another? Are we Europeans to become
incapable, with all our tropical and colonial dependencies, with all our
long-created trading connections, with all that modern production and
transportation can do, of even averting famine from the mass of our
peoples? Are we all, through our poverty and our quarrels, for ever to be
a burden and a danger to the rest of the world? Do we imagine that we
can be carried forward indefinitely upon the shoulders—broad though

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they be—of the United States of America?

The time has come when these questions must be answered. This is the
hour of choice and surely the choice is plain. If the people of Europe
resolve to come together and work together for mutual advantage, to
exchange blessings instead of curses, they still have it in their power to
sweep away the horrors and miseries which surround them, and to allow
the streams of freedom, happiness and abundance to begin again their
healing flow. This is the supreme opportunity, and if it be cast away, no
one can predict that it will ever return or what the resulting catastrophe
will be.

In my experience of large enterprises, I have found it is often a mistake
to try to settle everything at once. Far off, on the skyline, we can see the
peaks of the Delectable Mountains. But we cannot tell what lies between
us and them. We know where we want to go; but we cannot foresee all
the stages of the journey, nor can we plan our marches as in a military
operation. We are not acting in the field of force, but in the domain of
opinion. We cannot give orders. We can only persuade. We must go
forward, step by step, and I will therefore explain in general terms where
we are and what are the first things we have to do. We have now at once
to set on foot an organisation in Great Britain to promote the cause of
United Europe, and to give this idea the prominence and vitality
necessary for it to lay hold of the minds of our fellow countrymen, to
such an extent that it will affect their actions and influence the course of
national policy.

We accept without question the world supremacy of the United
Nations Organisation. In the Constitution agreed at San Francisco direct
provision was made for regional organisations to be formed. United
Europe will form one major Regional entity. There is the United States
with all its dependencies; there is the Soviet Union; there is the British
Empire and Commonwealth; and there is Europe, with which Great
Britain is profoundly blended. Here are the four main pillars of the world
Temple of Peace. Let us make sure that they will all bear the weight
which will be imposed and reposed upon them.

There are several important bodies which are working directly for the
federation of the European States and for the creation of a Federal
Constitution for Europe. I hope that may eventually be achieved. There is
also the movement associated with Mr. Van Zeeland for the economic
integration of Europe. With all these movements we have the most
friendly relations. We shall all help each other all we can because we all
go the same way home. It is not for us at this stage to attempt to define or
prescribe the structure of constitutions. We ourselves are content, in the

first instance, to present the idea of United Europe, in which our country
will play a decisive part, as a moral, cultural and spiritual conception to
which all can rally without being disturbed by divergencies about
structure. It is for the responsible statesmen, who have the conduct of
affairs in their hands and the power of executive action, to shape and
fashion the structure. It is for us to lay the foundation, to create the
atmosphere and give the driving impulsion.

First I turn to France. For 40 years I have marched with France. I have
shared her joys and sufferings. I rejoice in her reviving national strength.
I will never abandon this long comradeship. But we have a proposal to
make to France which will give all Frenchmen a cause for serious
thought and valiant decision. If European unity is to be made an effective
reality before it is too late, the wholehearted efforts both of France and
Britain will be needed from the outset. They must go forward hand in
hand. They must in fact be founder-partners in this movement.

The central and almost the most serious problem which glares upon
the Europe of to-day is the future of Germany. Without a solution of this
problem, there can be no United Europe. Except within the framework
and against the background of a United Europe this problem is incapable
of solution. In a continent of divided national States, Germany and her
hard-working people will not find the means or scope to employ their
energies. Economic suffocation will inevitably turn their thoughts to
revolt and to revenge. Germany will once again become a menace to her
neighbours and to the whole world; and the fruits of victory and
liberation will once more be cast away. But on the wider stage of a
United Europe German industry and German genius would be able to
find constructive and peaceful outlets. Instead of being a centre of
poverty and a source of danger, the German people would be enabled to
Dring back prosperity in no small measure, not only to themselves, but to
the whole continent.

Germany to-day lies prostrate, famishing among ruins. Obviously no
initiative can be expected from her. It is for France and Britain to take the
lead. Together they must, in a friendly manner, bring the German people
back into the European circle. No one can say, and we need not attempt
to forecast, the future constitution of Germany. Various individual
German States are at present being recreated. There are the old States and
Principalities of the Germany of former days to which the culture of the
world owed much. But without prejudice to any future question of
German federation, these individual States might well be invited to take
their place in the Council of Europe. Thus, in looking back to happier
days we should hope to mark the end of that long trail of hatred and

retaliation which has already led us all, victors and vanquished alike, into
the pit of squalor, slaughter and ruin.

The prime duty and opportunity of bringing about this essential
reunion belongs to us and to our French friends across the Channel.
Strong bonds of affection, mutual confidence, common interest and
similar outlook link France and Britain together. The Treaty of Alliance
which has lately been signed only gives formal expression to the
community of sentiment that already exists as an indisputable and
indestructible fact. It is true that this task of reconciliation requires on the
part of France, which has suffered so cruelly, an act of faith, sublime in
character; but it is by this act of faith and by this act of faith alone that
France will regain her historic position in the leadership of Europe.

There is also another leading member of our family of nations to be
held in mind. There is Italy. Everything that I have said about the
imperative need of reaching a reconciliation with the German race and
the ending of the fearful quarrels that have ruined them, and almost
ruined us, applies in a less difficult degree to the Italian people, who wish
to dwell happily and industriously within their beautiful country, and
who were hurled by a dictator into the hideous struggles of the North. I
am told that this idea of a United Europe makes an intense appeal to
Italians, who look back across the centuries of confusion and disorder to
the glories of the classic age, when a dozen legions were sufficient to
preserve peace and law throughout vast territories and when free men
could travel freely under the sanction of a common citizenship. We hope
to reach again a Europe purged of the slavery of ancient days in which
men will be as proud to say “I am a European” as once they were to say
“Civis Romanus sum”. We hope to see a Europe where men of every
country will think as much of being a European as of belonging to their
native land, and wherever they go in this wide domain will truly feel
“Here I am at home”. How simple it would all be, and how crowned with
glory, if that should ever arise.

It will of course be asked: “What are the political and physical
boundaries of the United Europe you are trying to create? Which
countries will be in and which out?” It is not our task or wish to draw
frontier lines, but rather to smooth them away. Our aim is to bring about
the unity of all nations of all Europe. We seek to exclude no State whose
territory lies in Europe and which assures to its people those fundamental
personal rights and liberties on which our democratic European
civilisation has been created. Some countries will feel able to come into
our circle sooner, and others later, according to the circumstances in
which they are placed. But they can all be sure that whenever they are

able to join, a place and a welcome will be waiting for them at the
European Council table.

When I first began writing about the United States of Europe some 15
years ago, I wondered whether the U.S.A. would regard such a
development as antagonistic to their interest, or even contrary to their
safety. But all that has passed away. The whole movement of American
opinion is favourable to the revival and re-creation of Europe. This is
surely not unnatural when we remember how the manhood of the United
States has twice in a lifetime been forced to re-cross the Atlantic Ocean
and give their lives and shed their blood and pour out their treasure as the
result of wars originating from ancient European feuds. One cannot be
surprised that they would like to see a peaceful and united Europe taking
its place among the foundations of the World Organisation to which they
are devoted. I have no doubt that, far from encountering any opposition
or prejudice from the Great Republic of the New World, our Movement
will have their blessing and their aid.

We here in Great Britain have always to think of the British self-
governing Dominions—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
We are joined together by ties of free will and affection which have stood
unyielding against all the ups and downs of fortune. We are the centre
and summit of a world-wide commonwealth of nations. It is necessary
that any policy this island may adopt towards Europe and in Europe
should enjoy the full sympathy and approval of the peoples of the
Dominions. But why should we suppose that they will not be with us in
this cause? They feel with us that Britain is geographically and
historically a part of Europe, and that they also have their inheritance in
Europe. If Europe united is to be a living force, Britain will have to play
her full part as a member of the European family. The Dominions also
know that their youth, like that of the United States, has twice in living
memory traversed the immense ocean spaces to fight and die in wars
brought about by European discord in the prevention of which they have
been powerless. We may be sure that the cause of United Europe, in
which the mother country must be a prime mover, will in no way be
contrary to the sentiments which join us all together with our Dominions
in the august circle of the British Crown.

It is of course alleged that all advocacy of the ideal of United Europe is
nothing but a manoeuvre in the game of power politics, and that it is a
sinister plot against Soviet Russia. There is no truth in this. The whole
purpose of a united democratic Europe is to give decisive guarantees
against aggression. Looking out from the ruins of some of their most
famous cities and from amid the cruel devastation of their fairest lands,

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the Russian people should surely realise how much they stand to gain by
the elimination of the causes of war and the fear of war on the European
Continent. The creation of a healthy and contented Europe is the first and
truest interest of the Soviet Union. We had therefore hoped that all
sincere efforts to promote European agreement and stability would
receive, as they deserve, the sympathy and support of Russia. Instead,
alas, all this beneficent design has been denounced and viewed with
suspicion by the propaganda of the Soviet Press and radio. We have
made no retort and I do not propose to do so to-night. But neither could
we accept the claim that the veto of a single power, however respected,
should bar and prevent a movement necessary to the peace, amity and
well-being of so many hundreds of millions of toiling and striving men
and women.

And here I will invoke the interest of the broad, proletarian masses.
We see before our eyes hundreds of millions of humble homes in Europe
and in lands outside which have been affected by war. Are they never to
have a chance to thrive and flourish? Is the honest, faithful, breadwinner
never to be able to reap the fruits of his labour? Can he never bring up his
children in health and joy and with the hopes of better days? Can he
never be free from the fear of foreign invasion, the crash of the bomb or
the shell, the tramp of the hostile patrol, or what is even worse, the knock
upon his door of the political police to take the loved one far from the
protection of law and justice, when all the time by one spontaneous effort
of his will he could wake from all these nightmare horrors and stand
forth in his manhood, free in the broad light of day? The conception of
European unity already commands strong sympathy among the leading
statesmen in almost all countries. “Europe must federate or perish”, said
the present Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, before the late terrible war. He
said that, and I have no reason to suppose that he will abandon that
prescient declaration at a time when the vindication of his words is at
hand. Of course we understand that until public opinion expresses itself
more definitely, Governments hesitate to take positive action. It is for us
to provide the proof of solid popular support, both here and abroad,
which will give the Governments of Europe confidence to go forward
and give practical effect to their beliefs. We cannot say how long it will
be before this stage is reached. We ask, however, that in the meantime
His Majesty’s Government, together with other Governments, should
approach the various pressing Continental problems from a European
rather than from a restricted national angle. In the discussions on the
German and Austrian peace settlements, and indeed throughout the
whole diplomatic field the ultimate ideal should be held in view. Every

new arrangement that is made should be designed in such a manner as to
be capable of later being fitted into the pattern of a United Europe.

We do not of course pretend that United Europe provides the final and
complete solution to all the problems of international relationships. The
creation of an authoritative, all-powerful world order is the ultimate aim
towards which we must strive. Unless some effective World Super-
Government can be set up and brought quickly into action, the prospects
for peace and human progress are dark and doubtful.

But let there be no mistake upon the main issue. Without a United
Europe there is no sure prospect of world government. It is the urgent
and indispensable step towards the realisation of that ideal. After the First
Great War the League of Nations tried to build, without the aid of the
U.S.A., an international order upon a weak, divided Europe. Its failure
cost us dear.

To-day, after the Second World War, Europe is far weaker and still
more distracted. One of the four main pillars of the temple of peace lies
before us in shattered fragments. It must be assembled and reconstructed
before there can be any real progress in building a spacious
superstructure of our desires. If, during the next five years, it is found
possible to build a world organisation of irresistible force and inviolable
authority for the purpose of securing peace, there are no limits to the
blessings which all men may enjoy and share. Nothing will help forward
the bui ding of that world organisation so much as unity and stability in a
Europe that is conscious of her collective personality and resolved to
assume her rightful part in guiding the unfolding destinies of man.

In the ordinary day-to-day affairs of life, men and women expect
rewards for successful exertion, and this is often right and reasonable.
But those who serve causes as majestic and high as ours need no reward;
nor are our aims limited by the span of human life. If success come to us
soon, we shall be happy. If our purpose is delayed, if we are confronted
by obstacles and inertia, we may still be of good cheer, because in a
cause, the righteousness of which will be proclaimed by the march of
future events and the judgment of happier ages, we shall have done our
duty, we shall have done our best.

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